Senate Bill No. 646
(By Senators Unger and Minard)
____________
[Introduced March 21, 2005; referred to the Committee
on Finance.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact §11-13-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to excluding from the business and
occupation tax the proceeds of assessments made pursuant to
the declarations or covenants of nonprofit homeowners'
associations, organized under the laws of this state, which
are received from homeowner association members for the
purpose of providing community services such as road
maintenance, water and sewerage service, security and the
like.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §11-13-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 13. BUSINESS AND OCCUPATION TAX.
§11-13-1. Definitions.
(a) General
. -- When used in this article, or in the administration of this article, the terms defined in subsection (b)
shall have the meanings ascribed to them by this section, unless a
different meaning is clearly required by either the context in
which the term is used or by specific definition.
(b) Terms defined.
(1) "Person" or the term "company," herein used
interchangeably, includes any individual, firm, copartnership,
joint adventure, association, corporation, trust or any other group
or combination acting as a unit, and the plural as well as the
singular number, unless the intention to give a more limited
meaning is disclosed by the context.
(2) "Sale," "sales" or "selling" includes any transfer of or
title to property or electricity, whether for money or in exchange
for other property.
(3) "Taxpayer" means any person liable for any tax hereunder.
(4) "Gross income" means the gross receipts of the taxpayer,
received as compensation for personal services and the gross
receipts of the taxpayer derived from trade, business, commerce or
sales and the value proceeding or accruing from the sale of
tangible property (real or personal), or service, or both, and all
receipts by reason of the investment of the capital of the business
engaged in, including rentals, royalties, fees, reimbursed costs or
expenses or other emoluments however designated and including all
interest, carrying charges, fees or other like income, however denominated, derived by the taxpayer from repetitive carrying of
accounts, in the regular course and conduct of his
or her business,
and extension of credit in connection with the sale of any tangible
personal property or service, and without any deductions on account
of the cost of property sold, the cost of materials used, labor
costs, taxes, royalties paid in cash or in kind or otherwise,
interest or discount paid or any other expenses whatsoever.
Gross
income, as used in this article, does not include funds received
for community services from the voting members of a nonprofit
homeowners association which is dedicated to the purposes and
functions applicable to unit associations under the provisions of
the West Virginia Uniform Common Ownership Interest Act as provided
in article one, chapter thirty-six-b of this code.
(5) "Gross proceeds of sales" means the value, whether in
money or other property, actually proceeding from the sale of
tangible property without any deduction on account of the cost of
property sold or expenses of any kind.
(6) "Business" shall include all activities engaged in or
caused to be engaged in with the object of gain or economic
benefit, either direct or indirect. "Business" shall include the
rendering of gas storage service by any person for the gain or
economic benefit of any person, including, but not limited to, the
storage operator, whether or not incident to any other business
activity.
(7) "Gas" means either natural gas unmixed, or any mixture of
natural and artificial gas or any other gas.
(8) "Storage reservoir" means that portion of any subterranean
sand or rock stratum or strata into which gas has been injected for
the purpose of storage prior to the first day of March, one
thousand nine hundred eighty-nine.
(9) "Gas storage service" means the injection of gas into a
storage reservoir, the storage of gas for any period of time in a
storage reservoir, or the withdrawal of gas from a storage
reservoir. Such gas may be owned by the storage operator or any
other person.
(10) "Net number of dekatherms of gas injected" means the sum
of the daily injection of dekatherms of gas in excess of the sum of
the daily withdrawals of dekatherms of gas during a tax month.
(11) "Net number of dekatherms of gas withdrawn" means the sum
of the daily withdrawal of dekatherms of gas in excess of the sum
of the daily injection of dekatherms of gas during a tax month.
(12) "Gas storage operator" means any person who operates a
storage reservoir or provides a storage service as defined herein,
either as owner or lessee.
(13) "Month" or "tax month" means the calendar month.
(14) "Dekatherm" means the thermal energy unit equal to one
million British thermal units (BTU's) or the equivalent of one
thousand cubic feet of gas having a heating content of one thousand BTU's per cubic foot.
(15) "Taxable year" means the calendar year, or the fiscal
year ending during such calendar year, upon the basis of which tax
liability is computed under this article. "Taxable year" means, in
case of a return made for a fractional part of a year under the
provisions of this article, or under regulations promulgated by the
Tax Commissioner, the period for which such return is made.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
exclude from the business
and occupation tax, the proceeds of assessments made pursuant to
the declarations or covenants of nonprofit homeowners associations,
organized under the laws of this state, which are received from
homeowner association members for the purpose of providing
community services such as road maintenance, water and sewerage
service, security and the like.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.